I will admit I usually don’t understand the outpouring of mourning that follows the passing of a celebrity. I feel a bit confused and tend to want to say, “but you didn’t even know them.” However, the passing of Pope Francis has caused me to reflect on time and mortality in a way that only the death of a friend can cause. I have a strong sense of the finiteness of him and all of us. I don’t want to take his life on earth for granted. Pope Francis was much more than a celebrity for me, he was truly a spiritual Father.
In 2013, when he was elected, I was in a very different season of life. I was dating, but not even engaged yet, to the man who would be my husband. I was working on my Master’s in Theology slooowly in between teaching full time. I had been back from Honduras for about 4 years. I had learned through my time in Honduras, with the organization Con-solatio, that everyone is suffering, and that my calling in response to the suffering of the world was to remain present, not to save, not to rescue, just to be a presence of consolation. God had not called me to do big things, but to do “small things with great love” as Saint Mother Teresa would say. God opened the doors to an amazing community of women and the mission of Con-solatio was continued near the campus of my university. It was with this blessed community of women I shared the election of Pope Francis, and the details of this day are still so vivid in my mind and heart. We were actually on retreat in New York and having a profound experience of hospitality and community. As tends to happen, when we can allow ourselves space for the Holy Spirit to lead, we were encountering each other in deeper friendship, having new insights about our calling of hospitality and compassion and being drawn deeper into God’s love and mercy. When we arrived at the retreat house, everyone was all abuzz that the conclave had started. Who would the Spirit choose to serve the Church next? How long would it take? We had limited internet access and no cell reception. I think they were even paying for internet per hour. Suddenly, our newly acquainted priest (who has become such a dear part of our family during these last 12 years) came running down the stairs saying, “white smoke, white smoke!” On only the 2nd day, a new pope had been chosen, what a great sign of unity! We gathered around a very small tv screen waiting anxiously for the news. The internet kept buffering. The excitement was palpable. I was with my community of young women who were on retreat. We were with our spiritual director, who is lay consecrated from France, the priest from Switzerland, two religious sisters (nuns), one from Argentina, and a few other members of Con-solatio. Laypeople and religious from so many parts of the world- it felt like the global Church was in that room. Finally after so much anticipation…they announced Jorge Mario Bergoglio from…Argentina. He would take the name Francis. The sister from Argentina burst into tears. We all cheered. Of course, I had never heard of this Cardinal, but I knew St. Francis well, and had always felt a connection to him. News quickly spread that when he was a bishop he had visited the Con-solatio house in Argentina and loved the humble and simple mission of hospitality and presence. We waited for his first appearance. He was taking a long time and worry that our internet would run out was increasing. Jokes abounded that he was a Latin American after all, and they are on their own time. “He’s probably having a maté first.” Our internet lasted and we saw his appearance. I don’t remember what he said. I think he asked for our prayers. I do remember sensing the quality of his character. I remember thinking he had such a kind face.
That evening we had a feast. It was a glimpse of the heavenly banquet that I’ve been blessed to experience a few times in my life. The wine was flowing. There was laughter to the point of tears. The (usually reserved) sister from Argentina was positively giddy and was teased relentlessly for her out of character silliness. She decorated a cake, the culmination of the feast, with the words, “Viva El Papa!” After dinner we went on a walk in the setting sun in the countryside. We had witnessed the Holy Spirit lead the Church, never abandoning Her, as Jesus had promised. It was truly a day of celebration. As we walked under the summer moon, my spiritual director shared her hope and anticipation of what she might learn, how she will be formed by this new Pope. She shared how truly the last pope had been a spiritual father to her. I hadn’t had that experience before, but I wanted the relationship she had.
Some of the first things I read in their entirety from Pope Francis were, “The Joy of the Gospel” and “The Church of Mercy.” In these, his focus is on themes of Joy, Hope, Mercy, Peace and Love, themes that he expresses with warmth. You can almost hear his voice in the writings. He has a special attention to the poor:
“He (Jesus) assured those burdened by sorrow and crushed by poverty that God has a special place for them in his heart: “Blessed are you poor, yours is the kingdom of God” (Lk 6:20); he made himself one of them: “I was hungry and you gave me food to eat,” and he taught them that mercy toward all of these is the key to heaven. (Mt 25:5)…This is why I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us. Not only do they share in the sensus fidei but in their difficulties they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them…We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them” (Joy of the Gospel 100).
A few years later, I read “Laudato Si, On Care for our Common Home.” On one hand, it wasn’t anything new. My faith had always taught me that taking care of the earth, being good stewards of creation, was what God had called us to do. Yet Francis explained the call so beautifully, it felt like hearing the call anew. Like his namesake, Saint Francis, who called the sun his brother and moon his sister, Pope Francis had a poetic way of reminding us of the real beauty and gift of creation. He connects the poor care for our earth with the poor care for those people living in poverty. For example, the poor experience the elements in nature and the effects of pollution, in ways that the ‘well-off’ can continue to evade.
The news media wanted to politicize everything he did. I rolled my eyes every time our news viewed anything he said through the lens of our U.S. politics. There were times he, of course, spoke to political issues, but usually he was speaking to a global church about much deeper issues than the latest controversy in the U.S. I watched reporters try to trap him in his words and it reminded me of the pharisees trying to trap Jesus.
He was a man who practiced what he preached. He preached about peace while reaching out to other religious leaders. He preached about mercy while washing the feet of prisoners. He preached about humility while welcoming the children. He preached love of God and love of neighbor while showing us in countless ways what that looks like.
It is a beautiful testament that Pope Francis died the day after Easter. The last service he celebrated was an Easter Mass. The last message he shared was an Easter message:
“This is the message of Easter: we must look for him elsewhere. Christ is risen, he is alive! He is no longer a prisoner of death… We must take action, set out to look for him: look for him in life, look for him in the faces of our brothers and sisters, look for him in everyday business, look for him everywhere except in the tomb…We must look for him without ceasing. Because if he has risen from the dead, then he is present everywhere, he dwells among us, he hides himself and reveals himself even today in the sisters and brothers we meet along the way, in the most ordinary and unpredictable situations of our lives. He is alive and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of us” (Easter Homily 2025).
Viva El Papa!